Methodology

How we verify every price

A cheap number is easy to find. A cheap number you can actually book is not. Here is the exact process every deal passes through before it reaches the site, and what each check is protecting you from.

What "normal price" means to us

You cannot say a fare is cheap unless you know what it usually costs. So the first thing our engine does is build that baseline. It records real fares across UK airports throughout the day and keeps a per-route history. So far that is more than 1.3 million observations across roughly 21,000 routes.

For each route we work out the typical price for the time of year, and how the current fare sits against the cheapest fares we have ever logged on it. When we say a deal is "40% below normal", that number comes from our own data, not a guess and not a marketing figure.

This baseline is the foundation everything else rests on, and it is the part that gets better with age. Every day the engine runs, it sees more of how a route behaves across weekends, holidays, and quiet periods. A price that looks cheap in isolation is judged against that growing history, not a single snapshot.

The five checks every deal passes

1. It has to be below normal. The fare must sit meaningfully under the route baseline for that time of year. A fare that is merely average never becomes a deal, however tempting the headline number looks on its own.
2. It has to be a real return trip. We only publish dated return trips. One-way fares dressed up to look like a round trip are rejected before they reach a page. The dates are real and the trip is one you could actually take.
3. It has to be live-verified. Before publishing, we re-check the fare at that moment for a genuine, bookable price with real flight times. The calendar estimate that first flagged the route is never good enough on its own.
4. The price you see is the return total. We quote the full return figure, never a single leg sitting next to a return headline. If a trip needs a connecting hop from another UK airport to make the price work, that leg is priced into the total too.
5. The airport is the real one. When a fare is listed under a city code like "London", we resolve it to the actual airport on the itinerary, whether that is Gatwick, Stansted, Luton, or Heathrow, so you know exactly where you are flying from.

What we refuse to publish

• One-way fares presented as return trips.
• Prices we cannot confirm as bookable at the moment we publish.
• Fares that are not actually below the route's normal level.
• Trips where a hidden positioning leg would quietly wreck the real total.

If a deal cannot clear those bars, it does not go live. We would rather publish fewer deals you can trust than a long list you cannot.

How to read our labels

A few tags show up on our deals. Here is what each one is telling you.

• Below normal. How far under the usual price this fare sits, measured against our own route history.
• Live and price-checked. We confirmed this as a bookable price, with the date and time we did it.
• From-price, confirm live. A starting price we have not been able to fully re-verify. Treat it as a strong lead and confirm the final figure on the booking site.
• Possible error fare. The price is so far below normal it may be an airline mistake. These are rare, they vanish fast, and you should book quickly and avoid adding paid extras until the base fare is confirmed.

Our data set grows every day, so these baselines get sharper over time. If you spot a price that does not match what you see on the booking site, tell us and we will look into it.